The Paine Files

[Steve Thomas]

3 hours ago, James DiEugenio said:

Congrats. 

Steve and Gene are doing a nice job peeling back the White Russians group that I thought was always so suspicious.

Kleinerer was a real piece of work.

Jim.

Over the course of time, I've been really surprised to learn that these White Russian guys were not just oil industry people, they all seemed to be "petroleum engineers" and geologists.

They were the guys who find the oil.

Along the way I learned that uranium deposits are often found alongside large oil fields. And off we go...

Steve Thomas

[Gene Kelly]

Steve

Being a nuclear engineer, I can comment upon uranium. Its a relatively common metal, found in rocks and seawater; and economic concentrations are not uncommon. Very large amounts of uranium occur in the world's oceans, but in very low concentrations.  The quantity of mineral resources currently are greater than perceived, and  are relative to both market prices and cost of extraction.  Uranium supply comes from two sources currently: mining and decommissioned nuclear warheads, and it has been successfully mined since the 1940s. 

All isotopes of uranium are radioactive and, over time, they decay to other lighter elements. The rate of decay is slow; the radioactive half-life of U-238 (the principal isotope found in the ground) is 4.47 billion years,. The half-life of U-235 (the fissionable isotope of interest, with a relatively small naturally occurring concentration) is 704 million years, which means that most of the Earth's original U-235 has already decayed away. Searching for uranium is  easier than for other mineral resources because the radiation signature of uranium's decay products allows deposits to be mapped from the air.

At Ranger in Australia, Rössing in Namibia, and most of Canada's Northern Saskatchewan mines (some of the world's largest mines), the orebodies have been accessed by open cut mining. Other mines such as Olympic Dam in Australia, McArthur River and Cigar Lake in Northern Saskatchewan, and Akouta in Niger are underground, up to 600 meters deep. Uranium mines operate in some 20 countries, but half of world production comes from just ten mines in four countries. Most of the uranium ore deposits at present supporting these mines have average grades in excess of 0.10% of uranium (> 1000 parts per million).  Over two-thirds of the world's production of uranium from mines originates from Kazakhstan, Canada and Australia. Over half of uranium mine production today is from state-owned mining companies, some of which prioritize secure supply over market considerations.  The majority of uranium resources in the United States are located in geological deposits in the Colorado plateau, Texas gulf coast region, and Wyoming basins.  Mining in Australia began in 1954, and roughly 85 known deposits, varying in size from small to very large, are scattered across the Australian continent (70% of in-ground deposits occur in so-called Proterozoic hematite granitic breccias at Olympic Dam, the world's largest deposit). After five decades of uranium mining, Australia still has the world's largest uranium resources.  Discoveries of high-grade uranium deposits in Canada, and new low-grade deposits have been recently reported under development in Argentina and Peru  recoverable at low-cost.

In 1964, as part of an effort to reduce tensions with the Soviet Union after the Cuban missile crisis, President Lyndon Johnson and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev announced parallel reductions in the production of fissile materials. In addition to promoting a more peaceful “post-Cold War era,” Johnson warned that the United States must not operate a nuclear project “just to maintain employment.” That same year, Johnson ordered an end to the production of enriched uranium for weapons purposes.  Since 1974 - when India tested a nuclear explosive made with plutonium separated for its civilian nuclear research and development program - the US has discouraged non-nuclear-armed states from launching plutonium-separation or uranium-enrichment programs to minimize proliferation issues and reduce terrorist access.  

I may not know too much about the White Russians (or the colonels), but I can speak to nuclear engineering, and I teach a graduate course on the subject. 

Gene

[Steve Thomas]

1 hour ago, Gene Kelly said:

Steve

 The majority of uranium resources in the United States are located in geological deposits in the Colorado plateau,...

 

Gene,

I used to live in that neck of the woods, and I know about the towns in western Colorado paved with uranium mill tailings.

That's why I had sort of an interest in George DeMohrenschildt's comings and goings in Rangely. When I read that D.H. Byrd sold his interests in Byrd Oil and used the money to found Byrd Uranium, my ears perked up.

Steve Thomas

[Gene Kelly]

Steve

An excellent New Mexico Tech website on the geology associated with uranium can be found here https://geoinfo.nmt.edu/resources/uranium/where.html .  It states that uranium deposits occur in many different rock types from sedimentary to volcanic. One thing all economic uranium deposits have in common is that the uranium is remobilized from one area (i.e., leached from a source rock containing minute quantities of U or as mineral grains with elevated U concentrations) and reprecipitated in a host rock where chemical conditions (reducing) are conducive to concentrating the uranium in higher concentrations or redeposited due to water action (waves on beaches or water flow in rivers) in placer deposits. Uranium occurs in a wide variety of geological environments worldwide, and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has identified 15 major deposit types based on those differing environments.

You are correct that oil and uranium are linked.  Sandstone uranium deposits are generally found in continental or marginal marine sedimentary rocks, and in basins related to volcanism. Uranium can be associated to copper and vanadium in sandstone deposits, and in some cases close to oil, and gas-producing terrains.  Examples include the Powder River Basin in Wyoming; the Coastal Plain of Texas; the Chu-Sarysu and Syrdarya basins of Kazakhstan; and the Neuquén basin in Argentina. 

By the early 1960's, plutonium became the holy grail (for weapons) and enrichment was the sensitive technology.  There were four known major deposits of uranium in the  1940-50's: Colorado, Canada, and the Belgian Congo. The State Department imposed export controls on uranium oxide and negotiated for the purchase of 1,200 tons of uranium ore from the Belgian Congo, stored in a warehouse on Staten Island for the Manhattan Project. "Little Boy" (dropped on Hiroshima in 1945) was a gun-type uranium-235 weapon, weighing 8,900 lb . It fired one subcritical piece of uranium-235 into another subcritical piece of uranium-235, which caused a nuclear chain reaction. 

Gene

[Steve Thomas]

2 hours ago, Gene Kelly said:

Steve

 

You are correct that oil and uranium are linked.  Sandstone uranium deposits are generally found in continental or marginal marine sedimentary rocks, and in basins related to volcanism. Uranium can be associated to copper and vanadium in sandstone deposits, and in some cases close to oil, and gas-producing terrains.  Examples include... ; the Chu-Sarysu and Syrdarya basins of Kazakhstan;...

 

Gene,

Thank you.

This makes the battle for the Eurasian land mass even more interesting for me.

Steve Thomas

[Joe Bauer]

1 hour ago, Steve Thomas said:

Gene,

Thank you.

This makes the battle for the Eurasian land mass even more interesting for me.

Steve Thomas

I second S. Thomas's appreciative post.

[Gene Kelly]

Steve/Joe

I would add that - by 1963 - the location (and control) of uranium reserves was less critical than it was in the 1950's.  The focus had shifted to high level enrichment of mined uranium, and its use in special reactors that could make plutonium, which was then extracted by special processes.  But by then, weapons limitations and proliferation treaties were also underway.  The development of Israel's nuclear capability was however a strategic US interest at the time (as well as the prevention of certain other countries' capability).  I don't think we (the US) had much of a chance of controlling Kazakhstan, where a large fraction of all the world's uranium is now produced.  Today, Kazakhstan is the most dominant economic nation of Central Asia thanks to its oil and gas industry and vast mineral resources.  In 1947, the USSR government founded an atomic test site near the north-eastern town of Semipalatinsk where the initial Soviet nuclear tests were conducted in 1949.  Hundreds of nuclear tests were subsequently conducted until 1989, with ecological/biological consequences.  They were the last of the Soviet republics to declare independence during the dissolution of the USSR in 1991. 

Gene

[Joe Bauer]

16 minutes ago, Gene Kelly said:

Steve/Joe

I would add that - by 1963 - the location (and control) of uranium reserves was less critical than it was in the 1950's.  The focus had shifted to high level enrichment of mined uranium, and its use in special reactors that could make plutonium, which was then extracted by special processes.  But by then, weapons limitations and proliferation treaties were also underway.  The development of Israel's nuclear capability was however a strategic US interest at the time (as well as the prevention of certain other countries' capability).  I don't think we (the US) had much of a chance of controlling Kazakhstan, where a large fraction of all the world's uranium is now produced.  Today, Kazakhstan is the most dominant economic nation of Central Asia thanks to its oil and gas industry and vast mineral resources.  In 1947, the USSR government founded an atomic test site near the north-eastern town of Semipalatinsk where the initial Soviet nuclear tests were conducted in 1949.  Hundreds of nuclear tests were subsequently conducted until 1989, with ecological/biological consequences.  They were the last of the Soviet republics to declare independence during the dissolution of the USSR in 1991. 

Gene

Again, this helps to understand the true make up and dynamics of the current and past geo-political landscapes. Helps one see the real truth behind so many agenda's that are behind the actions the superpowers have taken to control it all.

[Gene Kelly]

Back to the thread topic of the Paines (and their White Russian associates), I found this comment from a oil industry colleague (H. Gordon Calder) from Shreveport, Louisiana, who was interviewed by the FBI in March 1964 regarding George deMohrenschildt:

He described George deMohrenschildt as an atheist, a free thinker who likes arguments, and a ladies' man. He said that he had no morals when it comes to women and he suspects that if there was any friendship between him and the OSWALDs, it was due to his interest in Mrs. OSWALD as he prides himself with having had affairs with many women.

[Steve Thomas]

25 minutes ago, Joe Bauer said:

Again, this helps to understand the true make up and dynamics of the current and past geo-political landscapes. Helps one see the real truth behind so many agenda's that are behind the actions the superpowers have taken to control it all.

Joe,

You might be interested in reading this:

Back in the (Great) Game: The Revenge of Eurasian Land Powers

By Pepe Escobar 2008

https://consortiumnews.com/2018/08/29/back-in-the-great-game-the-revenge-of-eurasian-land-powers/

I personally learned a lot.

Steve Thomas

[Paul Brancato]

My speculation on the White Russians and George DeMohrenschildt in particular is that he and others were linked to the Skorzeny Network. George was himself suspected early on of being an Abwehr agent. During WW 2 the Nazis were our enemies. But before, and not long after, they were allies of the part of the US ruling elite that took power by 1948. Far from being hunted, post war Nazis of all stripes, not just scientific, were aided and abetted by our National Security State. 

[Steve Thomas]

19 hours ago, Gene Kelly said:

Back to the thread topic of the Paines (and their White Russian associates), I found this comment from a oil industry colleague (H. Gordon Calder) from Shreveport, Louisiana, who was interviewed by the FBI in March 1964 regarding George deMohrenschildt:

He described George deMohrenschildt as an atheist, a free thinker who likes arguments, and a ladies' man. He said that he had no morals when it comes to women and he suspects that if there was any friendship between him and the OSWALDs, it was due to his interest in Mrs. OSWALD as he prides himself with having had affairs with many women.

Gene,

According to DeMohrenschildt, it was George Bouhe who was smitten with her.

http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/russ/testimony/demohr_g.htm

Mr. De MOHRENSCHILDT. They already moved to Dallas. We already had moved them--had taken Marina away from her husband. And she already had returned back to her husband.
Mr. JENNER. All right. Now, you say you had already taken Marina away from her husband. Tell us how that occurred.
Mr. De MOHRENSCHILDT. In the meantime, George Bouhe became completely disgusted with Lee.
Mr. JENNER. Why?
Mr. De MOHRENSCHILDT. Because I don't know exactly why--because he liked Marina very much.
Mr. JENNER. Bouhe?
Mr. De MOHRENSCHILDT. Bouhe he is an elderly man.
Mr. JENNER. Yes, I appreciate that.
Mr. De MOHRENSCHILDT. He wanted--almost like a daughter, you see. To him she was a poor girl whose father was an ex-officer, and she needed help. And he really gave. her money. He would give her $30, $40, I think, all at once.

Steve Thomas

Edited July 29, 2020 by Steve Thomas

[James DiEugenio]

From Probe Magazine, Steve Jones:

And to my knowledge, the following is new information. Garrison tells Marina that Bouhe's next door neighbor is none other than Jack Ruby. Marina already knew this and told Garrison that after the assassination, Bouhe visited her to tell her that it was just a coincidence that he happened to live next door to her husband's killer. Garrison tells Marina that not only were Bouhe and Ruby neighbors, but also that they were indeed acquainted with each other and shared a common swimming pool at the small apartment complex where they lived.

This was the transcript of Marina before the New Orleans grand jury.  The stuff that, as I mentioned in my Kerry Thornley article,  Connick wanted incinerated, but he did not get all of it.  Bouhe makes it a point to tell Marina in advance that he just happened to be neighbors with the man who killed her husband.  Bouhe was reportedly kind of like the ringleader of that White Russian community in Dallas.  What a coincidence that he was, I think, the only person in that community who knew both Oswald and Ruby.  BTW, Marina tells Garrison that Oswald did not like Bouhe.

Then of course there is that postage due notice for Bouhe that somehow ended up at Ruth Paine's home and was discovered on November 26th. It was oddly attached to one for Oswald.  The latter was for the oh so mysterious package that was mailed to him at a non existent address and was kept at the irving post office and never collected. Although Ruth Paine tried to say the notice was for magazines, it was not. (James DiEugenio, Destiny Betrayed, second edition, pp 206-07)

Sometimes, just sometimes, that White Russian community--with their adjunct the Paines--reminds me of that group of devil worshipers surrounding Mia Farrow in Rosemary's Baby.

Edited July 30, 2020 by James DiEugenio

[Gene Kelly]

Jim/Steve

The White Russian crowd seem like a bunch of snakes (of the poisonous variety) ... they remind me of the Manson clan depicted in the recent "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" movie.   I wouldn't trust much of what George deMohrenschildt told the Warren Commission (or anything he is quoted as saying).   He was clearly connected to Allen Dulles, as evidenced by his previous experience as a CIA contact for a New York lawyer named Herbert Itkin, who was knee-deep in anti-Duvalier politics.  Notably, George had been introduced to Itkin by Allen Dulles.

In the early 1960’s, de Mohrenschildt was part of Clint Murchison’s interests in Haiti, and became involved in oil transactions with the dictator Papa Doc Duvalier. It was later revealed that this was actually a CIA operation: former CIA agent Herbert Atkin revealed that Mohrenschildt’s activities in Haiti were actually a cover for his intelligence-gathering for the CIA’s attempt to overthrow Duvalier. In May of 1963, he arranged a meeting between the infamous Clemard Charles, who allegedly grew hemp in Haiti, and Army Intelligence.  Four years later, in 1967, Charles was connected with a CIA/Haitian Cuban Exile plot to invade Haiti from Florida (a sequel to the Bay of Pigs). The man leading this operation was none other than Mitch WerBell,

Recall that George deMohrenschildt was also acquainted with Janet Auchincloss, the mother of Jackie Kennedy. Within weeks of the assassination, George wrote Janet from Haiti on December 12th. The tone of this letter - particularly his characterization of Oswald (different from other descriptions) - demonstrates a manipulative and devious personality. Then there is a State Department document that relates an entirely different picture.

"Mrs. de Mohrenschildt took Mrs. Oswald in her car from Fort Worth to Dallas for dental treatment, a week or two after they first met Oswald. According to Mr. and Mrs. De Mohrenschildt, they were interested in the Oswalds solely in helping them as unfortunate people. The de Mohrenschildt’s were devoted to the Oswalds to a truly remarkable extent; never before had they been known to take such an interest in managing the details of other people's lives. And certainly not people as contentious and purportedly "difficult" as the Oswalds. Neither Lee nor Marina was easy to be around-and neither exhibited much gratitude. It certainly appeared a labor of obligation rather than of love."

Gene

[Ron Bulman]

2 hours ago, James DiEugenio said:

From Probe Magazine, Steve Jones:

And to my knowledge, the following is new information. Garrison tells Marina that Bouhe's next door neighbor is none other than Jack Ruby. Marina already knew this and told Garrison that after the assassination, Bouhe visited her to tell her that it was just a coincidence that he happened to live next door to her husband's killer. Garrison tells Marina that not only were Bouhe and Ruby neighbors, but also that they were indeed acquainted with each other and shared a common swimming pool at the small apartment complex where they lived.

This was the transcript of Marina before the New Orleans grand jury.  The stuff that, as I mentioned in my Kerry Thornley article,  Connick wanted incinerated, but he did not get all of it.  Bouhe makes it a point to tell Marina in advance that he just happened to be neighbors with the man who killed her husband.  Bouhe was reportedly kind of like the ringleader of that White Russian community in Dallas.  What a coincidence that he was, I think, the only person in that community who knew both Oswald and Ruby.  BTW, Marina tells Garrison that Oswald did not like Bouhe.

Then of course there is that postage due notice for Bouhe that somehow ended up at Ruth Paine's home and was discovered on November 26th. It was oddly attached to one for Oswald.  The latter was for the oh so mysterious package that was mailed to him at a non existent address and was kept at the irving post office and never collected. Although Ruth Paine tried to say the notice was for magazines, it was not. (James DiEugenio, Destiny Betrayed, second edition, pp 206-07)

Sometimes, just sometimes, that White Russian community--with their adjunct the Paines--reminds me of that group of devil worshipers surrounding Mia Farrow in Rosemary's Baby.

Just sometimes?  With maybe Dulles/Angleton conducting events from afar?